New Post
Search
Help
ArchivesPoetic problems
Does anybody out there know more about John Betjeman than I do? (This isn't hard ...) I've just finished AN Wilson's biography of him, which gives him a son Paul and a daughter Candida. Candida Rose, in fact, and no mn stated for Paul. Wanting to double-check something else, I went to Wikipedia (I know, I know) and found the odd statement that the daughter was originally Paula and adopted the name Candida herself. No explanation, no reference.
I suppose naming siblings Paul and Paula isn't necessarily odd (I once taught twins called Michael and Michelle, and another pair called Marcelle and Mark), but if it's true then why not mention it in their parent's biography? Surely it sheds some light on the subject's character and on family dynamics?
Wiki also claimed that there had been another son, John. No further info, and once more, nothing at all in the Wilson bio. Puzzling all round. And now I'm REALLY curious!
All the best
I suppose naming siblings Paul and Paula isn't necessarily odd (I once taught twins called Michael and Michelle, and another pair called Marcelle and Mark), but if it's true then why not mention it in their parent's biography? Surely it sheds some light on the subject's character and on family dynamics?
Wiki also claimed that there had been another son, John. No further info, and once more, nothing at all in the Wilson bio. Puzzling all round. And now I'm REALLY curious!
All the best
1
Replies
I see that Wikipedia also gives 1937 as the year of birth for both John and Paul so pehaps they are one and the same person?
I thought he only had a daughter - there wasa lot of stuff in the Irish papers about Betjeman and Candida,at the time of the centenery, especially as it seems he spied while living in Dublin during WWII. I never heard mention of her changing her name though.
I thought he only had a daughter - there wasa lot of stuff in the Irish papers about Betjeman and Candida,at the time of the centenery, especially as it seems he spied while living in Dublin during WWII. I never heard mention of her changing her name though.
1
Ooh, I missed the duplicate date! John becomes Paul, and Paula becomes Candida? Curiouser and curiouser.
According to Wilson, Paul didn't get on with his parents, and at one point while living in the States became a Mormon, from a position of total, sweet sincerity, though to a dyed-in-the-wool Anglican father and a Catholic convert mother it must have looked like a personal attack.
According to Wilson, Paul didn't get on with his parents, and at one point while living in the States became a Mormon, from a position of total, sweet sincerity, though to a dyed-in-the-wool Anglican father and a Catholic convert mother it must have looked like a personal attack.
1